Shopping and Dining on the Historic Square

The Rogers Hotel Yep, It's Haunted!

The Rogers Hotel – Several years back, the owner of the Rogers Hotel said he believed that the historic hotel was haunted. When the owner arrived at the hotel one morning he could not find the maintenance man.

When he finally found him, the man had locked himself in his room and would not come out. After talking with him through the door, he finally convinced the man to calm down and open the door and tell him what was wrong.The maintenance man said that the previous night there was a knock on his door. When he opened the door a stranger was standing there. He was surprised because the hotel was still undergoing renovation and this area was off limits to the public. The man was wearing old dusty clothes that appeared to be from another era. The stranger asked him to follow him and led the maintenance man down into the basement area. Once they entered the basement area where the pool was located, the man said the hair on the back of his neck stood up. The stranger turned to him and said, “bad things have happened down here! Do not come down here again!” Then the stranger vanished into thin air. The maintenance man was so overcome with fear that he ran as fast as he could back to his room and locked the door! He quit his job and left the hotel that morning and never came back.

Over the next several months the owner began hearing stories from some of his cleaning people about strange things happening on the 4th floor. They would hear voices and footsteps in the hall and in certain rooms. When they went to check it out, they could not find anyone. One housemaid became so fearful she quit rather than have to go up to the 4th floor. The 4th-floor hauntings also extended to hotel guests. A lady staying on the 4th floor said that during the middle of the night she was awakened by the feeling that someone was watching her and her husband as they slept. In the dim light from the window, she could see a man dressed in early cowboy garb standing at the foot of their bed. She said she did not feel any fear but wanted her husband to see this man as well. She turned to awaken her husband and the apparition disappeared.

One particular night, the night clerk also experienced something peculiar. As she read a magazine, the elevator activated and went up to the 4th floor. At first she thought a guest was coming down but suddenly realized there were no guests on the 4th floor. The elevator reached the lobby floor and the door opened but no one was in the old elevator! The clerk came around the desk to investigate and looked into the elevator. When she turned around there was a young girl in a white floor length nightgown, standing in front of the desk. She did not recognize this young girl and they stood there staring at each other for what seemed like several seconds. The clerk then asked if she could help her and the girl ran up the stairs and vanished into thin air. The desk clerk was so unnerved by this it was all she could do to stay there until morning.

The owner also related a little bit of unknown history about the Rogers Hotel. Back around the turn of the century the son of the manager at that time hanged himself in the elevator shaft. No one knows why the young man took his own life. After hearing of so many experiences from a number of people, the owner decided to have a paranormal investigation group visit the hotel. He was told there was indeed an evil presence in the basement and several benevolent entities on the 4th floor that posed no threat to anyone. It makes one wonder what might have happened to these apparitions that made them want to hang around all these years